If you can't measure it, you can't manage it, so here's Platform's first attempt at running the numbers on Greater Manchester's sustainability efforts, from waste, to cycling, to carbon.

Walter Menzies heralds the arrival of the Manchester and Pennine Waterway Partnership which has launched this month at the Lowry in Salford Quays and introduces its forthcoming 'manifesto' for the waterways.

How can we achieve true sustainability in Greater Manchester? The central theme of Caroline Downey's essay is that the individualistic, economic growth paradigm has not worked, cannot work, and is threatening our very existence. Without a fundamental shift in governance and ideology, a sustainable future for humans is difficult to imagine.

Offering the most potential for efficient and effective working on detailed waste planning matters, the Greater Manchester Joint Waste Development Plan  (JWDPD) was adopted by each of the ten AGMA Authorities in 2011.  The JWDPD sets out a spatial framework for waste developments within Greater Manchester up to 2027, helping to direct the provision of adequate waste management facilities to appropriate locations across the city region.  The JWDPD now forms part of the statutory Development Plan for each authority and will be used alongside district-specific planning documents for the purpos